What's going on in Sanford and Seminole County, Fla.

Sanford-based mystery game launching in time for holidays

Something is amiss in the Celery City. In fact it’s a mystery – a murder mystery.

Not to worry though, it’s all in good fun.

Two Sanford businessmen have created “Sanford Murder Mystery,” a new board game with a pronounced Sanford flair.

Daniel Lewis and Brian Hornburg have spent the last 8 months developing the game’s rules, graphics and packaging. They will soon start production and expect the game to be available to the public by mid November.

Sanford Murder Mystery is loosely based on the classic board game Clue. There will be eight characters based on local people and there will be 8 special weapons that relate to the characters. For instance, Paul Williams is a character. One of the weapons is the Sunshine State Bomb, a popular drink at Williams’ bar West End Trading Co.

Willow Tree Cafe’s Christina Hollerbach is another character. There will also be a Das Boot weapon, based on the glass boot of beer that gets passed around at the Willow Tree.

The locations will be based at sites throughout town, like the Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium.

Lewis has some experience creating games. For the last 10 years, he has created local versions of popular games for his kids. Last year for the first he sold his game Sanfordopoly publicly.

“It’s just a fun thing I’ve done with my kids in the past,” Lewis said. “Every year they’re like, ‘Dad, what’s the game going to be this year?’ “

Lewis said this year’s game will be one of the best he’s done thanks to Hornburg’s help.

“Brain has really brought some great ideas,” said Lewis. “It’s been total collaborative effort between the two of us.”

Lewis said the two will launch the game at a special event at Celery City Craft before Thanksgiving. It will cost about $35 and a portion of the proceeds will go to a local charity.

“We haven’t finalized all the costs yet. We should have that done in the next 30 days or so,” said Lewis. “At that point, we’ll know what we’ll charge and which charity we’ll be supporting.”